In 1994, the Cranford Dramatic Club was putting on The Tales of Hans Christian Anderson for their annual children’s theater production. My father, a second generation member of the theater, figured that since he was auditioning, he might as well take me with him and let me give it a shot. After a disastrous first audition where all I did was cry for my Daddy, I was given another chance, and was cast in the show as a villager named Gretel, a gosling, and the girl who held the Emperor’s cape. I didn’t have any lines, but I still took my roles very seriously. After all, I had a family legacy to uphold.

My grandparents, Sue and Richard Chandler, moved to Cranford from Cape Elizabeth, Maine in 1966. Some of the first friends that they made in the area were members of CDC. My grandmother had been a dancer as a girl, and my grandfather was a natural ham, so it didn’t take much coercing to get them to join the club.